Clearly Carnage
26,000 Years Ago... "Not big enough. Too few teeth," muttered Mutran, looking at his newest creation. Chirox, who was beside him, nodded, "I agree." "I'll take it. I've grown used to picking off your scraps," Rayzok, watching them, declared. “They would be well led by my new aide, Jaykorax. Is he ready?" Mutran nodded, then gestured to someone in the next room. The next moment, a strange creature entered. The thinkg had a normal-looking torso and arms, but his head was insect-like and his arms ended in claw-like blades. His torso also had four legs sprouting from it, each resembling an insect’s. Rayzok smiled. "It's much better than being one of Thravak's Skakdi underlings, right?” Jaykorax nodded. “That’s why I chose to betray him. I had bigger plans.” Rayzok looked Mutran in the eyes. “I’ll take the spiders, since they apparently don’t suit you.” "Fine, take them, then,” Mutran conceded. “At least I won't have to look at them anymore." Present Day... “Toa Voran! Levuku! Toa Yurdil! come on where are you guys?!” yelled Lihee. Great. They’re gone. Well, maybe. Lihee cast his eyes around the cave mouth. He could hear the struggle inside, but not see anything outside at the time. “Choro? Do you see anything?” he asked. The Yelnir at his side shook his head. “Nope, just rocks. Looks like we need to look inside the cave.” “No! Don’t!” came a voice. Lihee, Toa of Fire, Choro, the Yelnir, Thravak, the mutant Skakdi, and Rupiku, the Po-Matoran, all turned to see Voran, the red-silver Toa of Lightning, rushing toward them. “Oh hey, Voran! Hi, I didn’t see you. Were you hiding, or could you not find me?” “If I was deaf I could have heard you!” said Voran. “I was tending to Levuku behind that rock. Being the leader of a team comes with the responsibility of your teammates’ safety, as you should know.” “He doesn’t,” Choro teased. Lihee lightly kicked the Yelnir joker, and turned to Voran. “We need to have a meeting, Voran. I think you’ll find it helpful.” Later, Lihee proposed his plan to Voran. They would combine the power and teamwork of Lihee’s and Voran’s teams, and join them in a close partnership. Voran thought the whole idea was very good, and was sure that all his teammates would appreciate the help. “I’m sure they would, too,” Levuku said, sitting up and looking for his staff. Finding it, he used it to help himself to his feet. "I would really like having you on our team, Lihee. I’ve heard a lot about you.” “Vice-versa,” Lihee said, smiling, and they knocked fists. “Well, that’s that,” said Voran. “Just have to tell Suntrah, then we’re good.” “Right, Voran. Wouldn’t want to not tell your partner in leadership about the soon-to-be obvious,” Levuku joked. Voran gave him a look. “A true team experience, just like we’ve had many times,” Rupiku said. “Operation Rayzok has begun,” said Choro, with a grin. Toa Voran burst into the cave and shouted, "Hey, I have reinforcements!" evuku followed them in and said, "This is the Toa of Fire Voran told us about!" “He's not the real trouble here, though, I am!” said Thravak, flexing his muscles and showing off his many weapons and tools. “Is he always this way?” Levuku asked Choro. “Yep.” said Choro. “Jolly.” said Levuku. Thravak spared an angry glance at Choro then got to fighting. Zartok looked at Voran's "reinforcements" and scowled. So, they have finally come for me, have they? thought Zartok. Well then, I'll just enjoy myself then. He winged over to his former friends to prove he didn't like them much anymore. "Oh look. Trouble,” said Choro. “And it comes with an evil smile too.” “Well that's always a bonus,” Thravak replied. “Hey, Zartok, how you doing?” Choro asked. Then Choro had to jump out of the way of a disintegration bolt. “Insanely well. No thanks for asking.” Zartok replied with a predatory grin. The new addition to the team seemed to work well. Lihee already had defeated seventeen Scorpio-Spiders with their own electro-balls, Choro managed to down the Plant-Rahkshi with a blast of plasma, and Thravak had ripped the heads off of both Vahki Ultima, and was grinding the pieces of the Vahki Ultima with his heel. Oh,” Levuku said, a little surprised. “Okay then. If it was that easy to beat them we would have done that a long time ago.” “Had a little trouble with those flimsy bots?” Thravak asked. Levuku nodded. “We’ve tried, but they wouldn’t just die already. I got to thinking it was impossible.” “There’s Thravak for you,” Choro smiled. “Worker of the impossible.” Meanwhile, Zartok was flying toward a wall because Lihee had slammed into him with his shield, but Zartok just used his wings to fly back towards Lihee and attack again. Toa Runik shot a blast of searing fire out of his sword at Thrahnatuka, but the red-, green-, and black-, armored Runask caught it with his staff’s stasis-catching power, added an energy blast of his own, and hurled it back at Runik. Suddenly a disk hit the Toa from an unknown source and he was seven inches tall. Thranatuka’s fireball missed, and Thravak dashed across the room to grab the evil Runask by the throat. Then Thravak fired his shoulder-mounted launcher and resized Runik back to regular. "Thanks for the save," Runik said. "Don't get used to it," the Skakdi returned. As Thravak said this he squeezed harder on Thrahnatuka’s throat. Thravak then sent him hurling at high speed toward a wall and decided he had better things to do then watch Thrahnatuka crumple, like take out the teleport Rahkshi. That was when Thravak got a crazy idea. I wonder what will happen if it goes insane, he thought. Grinning, he fired his eyebeams at the Teleport-Rahkshi. ---- Voran was winning. Badly. The Electricity-Rahkshi was trying to hurt him, but Voran simply absorbed the energy, because he shared the Rahkshi’s element. "This is boring, and I think you are vulnerable to your own power, so..." He triggered the spinner on his staff, caught it, charged it up, and shot it at his opponent. At first, nothing happened, then a massive lightning bolt with amperage in the hundreds hit the Rahkshi. The Kraata was dead and the armor was fused into one piece. Voran grabbed it, spun around and threw it at the Plasma-Rahkshi as it was readying to shoot plasma from its staff. The armorsuit stuck on the end of the staff, unleashing the intense heat on its owner and melting the creature. "That was fun," Voran muttered, satisfied. Thravak had never had so much fun in his life. Partially because he never had never seen a Rahkshi go insane before, and partially because the sound of metal crunching when the Rahkshi teleports into a wall and gets stuck was always a enjoyable sound, as well as a beautiful sight. He noticed Thrahnatuka was getting up so he fired his shoulder mounted gun. It hit Thrahnatuka and he was slammed against the wall and knocked out again. Thravak then grabbed the teleport Rahkshi, ripping it out of the wall, taking part of the wall with it, then threw it, hurling a energy ball from his talons and simultaneously firing his gun, the result being the Rahkshi being blown to bits. Life is good. Thravak thought. Especially when one destroys crud in creative ways. ---- Buraka, the female Crynok warrior, wasn't having a good time. She was constantly dodging stasis fields that were popping up in her face, courtesy of yet another Rahkshi. I can't keep this up, she thought. It has to end soon. It did. She veered off to draw the Rahkshi's attacks away from its body, planted her feet on the wall, then shot toward it. Her energy discharge-staff smashed into its gut, sending spasms through it...until the Kraata incinerated. Then it just crumpled up into a pile of metal. That's it, she thought. Two Rahkshi left. ---- Thravak jumped out of the way of a tornado, and another. "You're really annoying,” he said to the Cylone-Rahkshi, “and people who annoy me tend not to last long.” Thravak jumped and hit a wall, bouncing off of it with his enhancer boots, and used the winds from the tornado to catapult himself at the Rahkshi. he smashed into it, grabbed it around the waist with his left arm, landed, and threw it straight toward Rayzok. At this point, the Makuta was just staring into space and mentally congratulating himself on going through the battle scot-free. Sudden movement toward him caught his attention. Rayzok looked, and saw the Rahkshi heading right for him. The Rahkshi struck him head-on with a considerable “BAM” noise, then he fell out of the cave and smashed into the hillside with a “THUD” sound. As he started rolling down the hillside, a “CKACKA-CRACKA-CRACKA” sound accompanied this, followed by a hearty “SPLAT” when he hit bottom. Rayzok woke up in a hole. A hole shaped like his body all sprawled out. With some effort, he peeled himself out of the dirt and walked back up the hillside in disgust. Looks like I am joining in this battle after all. Lihee slammed into Zartok and sent him flying again, but Zartok simply flew back again only to find Lihee had vanished. Zartok was wondering how a Toa with red armor could be so stealthy when he was struck in the back of his head and blacked out. Lihee popped up behind Zartok and smiled. His smile faded as he was blasted across the cave by a shadow bolt. He got up and saw the last Rahkshi, the Shadow-Rahkshi. "So you’re the last one," said Lihee. The Rahkshi fired a shadow bolt again, but Lihee was ready. He absorbed it with his shield and fired it out his sword, laced with fire. The Rahkshi didn’t move. It knew it was invulnerable to its own power, so it was sure it would not be harmed. It had, however, overlooked Lihee’s adding his own power to the darkness, so when the intense heat struck and the Rahkshi realized its mistake, it was too late. Its frame softened and collapsed, burying the Kraata in liquid metal. ---- "I hoped we'd meet again, Thravak," said Jaykorax. “After all, I kept trying to tell you your plan wouldn't work and mine would, and look how we turned out. I have a position with a Plan that will work, and yours is refusing mine." "Jaykorax, you piece of worthless crud," Thravak growled. "I'm going to teach you that your side will...never... win!" "I beg to differ," said Jaykorax, charging at his former leader. "Jaykorax you were a fool in my army, you are a fool now, and you will be a fool till you wither and die!” Thravak shouted. Jaykorax was charging him, obviously intent on destroying him. "The day you destroy me will be the day Makuta decide Toa aren’t so bad after all,” Thravak said in response. While saying this, Tharavak waited till Jaykorax got close, really close, and suddenly it started. Thravak put his arms up to catch Jaykorax’s, locking them in the middle of the cave. Jaykorax tried to hit Thravak’s leg with one of his own, but the shredder attachments on Thravak’s boots minced that idea up good. It looked like the grapple might last forever. Thravak was stronger, but Jaykorax had planted his legs in the ground to help resist the Skakdi’s power. “Considering bowing to your superior?” Jaykorax asked. “Likewise?” Thravak asked in response. He fired a disk and shrunk Jaykorax, he then did a quick and hard kick and sent the six-inch tall Jaykorax flying. "That was was fun,” he said, laughing. ---- Rayzok returned to the cave to see that his forces were failing to meet their objective. How!? Rayzok thought angrily. This makes no sense at all! Thravak had just defeated Jaykorax, all of the Rahkshi were dead, and the Scorpio-Spider reserve was running dry. There's always me, I suppose, Rayzok thought, and summoned his energies. This mayhem...this carnage over crystal...must end! Thravak saw Rayzok gathering his energies and got a crazy idea. What would happen if Rayzok suddenly went as crazy as this idea? Thravak fired his insanity-vision at Rayzok. The Makuta didn't see it coming at all. Rayzok was hit and screamed at an odd pitch that had never come from Rayzok before. Rayzok then unleashed his magnetic power to crunch all the resistors together, driven by his newfound mania, then he began charging his shadow power for a finisher blast. Before the Makuta could shift his aim under the corrupted mentality left by Thravak’s blast, every one of Rayzok's enemies disappeared. Rayzok’s blast hit the cave wall instead, and he charged forward with his arms flailing for no reason...right under the now-collapsing ceiling. He looked up, and the shock of the realization forced Thravak’s power from his mind, but it was too late now. ---- "Is everyone all right?" asked Levuku. He was glad he had a Mask of Teleportation and everyone in the group was in physical contact when he triggered it. "I’m not." said Thravak. "First a block fell on me, and now the enemies are all probably dead! I was having fun!" “It's highly unlikely that they are dead," said Voran, "but I was not having fun. Thravak, that was a very stupid idea. Never do that again." "You guys are so boring," Thravak retorted. "Anyway, I had an idea: think like Choro." "I don't think like that!...well, most of the time I don't, anyway," Choro replied, chuckling. Suntrah nodded,"Yes, it was highly risky, but it was the right idea...and, Levuku...thanks." Levuku shrugged. “Hey, if I don’t come through and save all our masks, we’ll have to rely on someone else to do it, maybe even, Mata Nui forbid, Thravak. I couldn’t doom you all to that horrendous fate.” Thravak glared at the Crynok youth even as Choro burst out laughing. “Ooh, look out, Thavak, you old grouch. I’ve got competition for Team Jokester.” To this Levuku responded by laughing, as did Lihee, Rupiku, and even Suntrah. Soon everyone, even Thravak, was laughing, hearty, glorious laughter, heard around the island for miles around. ---- "Why have you brought us together, Suntrah?" Lihee asked. Suntrah replied,"Because there is something I must share with you. You know I was once Makuta Burtok's aide, well, he told me why the Makuta want this island.” “Well?” Bartha asked, impatient. “Spit it out, Suntrah, or I’ll force you to gag it up.” “Settle down, Bartha,” Yurdil said. “You don’t need to take your latent frustration out on our leader. Just let your frustration go.” “I’ll let it go when our physical affliction lets us go, Yurdil. Acting efficiently is the only way to get that to happen in good time.” “Let that conversation die already,” interrupted Jahvoka. “Just tell us, Suntrah.” “Yes, do,” Voran prodded, for this coming revelation was one thing Suntrah, even as co-leader, with Voran had not yet told his partner. “All right,” Suntrah agreed. “The Makuta discovered that is was a power source, and planned to use it to power their fortresses and war technology. He even shared the actual conversation in which Burtok told that to Rayzok with me.” “Can you remember the conversation?” Buraka asked. “Sure I can. I’ll even tell it to you, word for word,” Suntrah told her, then proceeded to tell a story of a quick exchange between the two Makuta, where Burtok explained his purpose in coming to Crystal Island to Rayzok.